What the Bible is and isn't

Have you ever wondered what the Bible actually is? Or who wrote it? Christians believe that the Bible is God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word. But what does that mean?

If you're curious about these questions and want to have a better understanding of the Bible, this episode of the unBibled podcast hosted by Bible teacher Liz Cobo is for you.

 

CLARIFICATION: In this episode at 12:44 I misspoke and said, "the Gospel of Acts." The Book of Acts is not a gospel account. - Liz

 

Learn more about Liz at lizcobo.com. 

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To watch the video version of this episode visit the unBibled YouTube channel. 

 

Bible Cross References Rainbow Graphic

 

Liz's Notes for this episode

• The Bible isn’t a single book. It’s 66 different books. Written by 40 or more authors, primarily Jewish men, over about 1,500 years of time.
• The Bible has multiple literary genres including law, historical narrative, wisdom, poetry, epistles, prophecy, and apocalyptic. 
• There are 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament.
• The Bible is not in chronological order from cover-to-cover.
• It is divided into two different sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
• The word testament means covenant or agreement. The Old Agreement was between God and His people, the Jews. The New Agreement is between God and anyone, Jew or Gentile who puts their faith in Jesus.
• You’ve probably heard the word Gentile before, but if you’re not sure what or who a Gentile is, it simply means someone who is not Jewish.
• Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.
• What does it mean that the Bible is inspired? It means that Christians believe the Bible was written by human authors who the Holy Spirit inspired to physically write down the text of Scripture. The Holy Spirit gave them the words to write. They were operating in their giftings and utilized their own unique ways of communicating through words the message of God. And this inspiration didn’t just extend to the authors whose names appear attached to the writings — but also to their scribes (sometimes referred to as an amanuensis). For example, we know that the Apostle Paul utilized scribes to write some of his epistles (or letters). That means both Paul and the scribe were operating in the power of the Holy Spirit to convey God’s message to God’s people.
• Christians also declare that the Bible is inerrant - without error in it’s original form. When the Bible was written in its original languages which include Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek by the authors of Scripture it was without error. It was exactly what God wanted to communicate. Over time, mostly through the process of copying the Scriptures, there have been some errors that have occurred. But those errors are never about issues relating to salvation. They don’t change the message God is delivering through the Bible.
• The belief that the Bible is infallible conveys the idea that the Bible cannot be wrong. Which is incredibly important to us in our day and age when popular culture has begun to think of truth as being relative, on a sliding scale. The truths of Scripture do not ch